Where there’s smokeless tobacco, there’s fire

Bruce Ward, Ottawa Citizen02.01.2013

Health Canada’s tobacco-use monitoring survey for 2010 shows the smoking rate among youths aged 15 to 17 was nine per cent — the lowest ever recorded. But eight per cent of Canadians 15 years and older reported having tried smokeless tobacco products in 2010. Five per cent of youth, or about 119,000 teens aged 15 to 19 and 10 per cent of young adults (about 228,000) aged 20 to 24, reported ever using smokeless tobacco.Olivier Morin
/ AFP/Getty Images

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MARC PREEL A woman shows portions of snus, a moist powder tobacco product that is consumed by placing it under the lip, in Stockholm on August 6, 2009. Sweden is trying to lift the European ban on its "snus", a sucking tobacco popular in the country and considered as smoking is being banned in public places around the world. AFP PHOTO / OLIVIER MORIN (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: DOUNIAMAOlivier Morin
/ AFP/Getty Images

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Quick question. Have you noticed teenage girls spitting in the street lately, or wondered about young males walking around with their upper lip poking out?

Chances are they’re using smokeless tobacco, also known as spit tobacco, chew, pinch or dip. If smokeless tobacco keeps trending with teenagers, the guy who invents a stylish spittoon that attaches to a smartphone will make a fortune.

Imagine parents’ chagrin when they find out junior is chawin’ baccy. They spent thousands on orthodontists so their son would have a blinding smile. Now his teeth look like they were dipped in henna.

Chewing tobacco is a revolting habit and far from harmless. But that’s not how teens see it.

They know smoking cigarettes is addictive. But they think smokeless is OK, because they’re not lighting cigarettes and inhaling carcinogens. No smoking, no cancer! The truth is, smokeless tobacco is a significant cause of oral cancer, pancreatic cancer and esophageal cancer.

In California, where all trends begin, sales of chewing tobacco and other smokeless products have been climbing for the past 10 years.

In 2010, smokeless tobacco use among high school students in California grew to almost four per cent, up from 3.1 in 2004.

Health Canada’s tobacco-use monitoring survey for 2010 shows the smoking rate among youths aged 15 to 17 was nine per cent — the lowest ever recorded. But eight per cent of Canadians 15 years and older reported having tried smokeless tobacco products in 2010. Five per cent of youth, or about 119,000 teens aged 15 to 19 and 10 per cent of young adults (about 228,000) aged 20 to 24, reported ever using smokeless tobacco.

Part of the appeal of snus, a popular smokeless product, is that teenagers can use it undetected while sitting in the classroom.

How cool is that?

Snus, pronounced “snooze,” resemble tiny, white, tea bags filled with tobacco. No spitting is required with snus, which typically are tucked under the upper lip near the gum line where little or no saliva is generated. Nicotine is absorbed directly through the gum, or users can swallow the juice for a quick nicotine hit. Snus last about an hour — long enough to get students through a boring physics class.

Dissolvable smokeless products such as orbs and strips are even sneakier. The orbs look like Tic Tacs, and the strips are similar in appearance to dissolvable breath-mint strips.

There are fewer government restrictions on the sale of smokeless tobacco products, so tobacco companies have been spending hugely to promote them.

In 2010, in the U.S., the tobacco industry spent $444 million on advertising and marketing smokeless tobacco products.

The companies claim their ads are aimed at adults, yet the range of flavours available in smokeless tobacco products seems designed for the teenage palate: apple, berry, cherry, citrus, spearmint, peach, winterchill, frost, and that’s just a sampling.

So far, there’s no Count Chocula Chewing Tobacco or Boo Berry Snus, but maybe those are in the works.

I started smoking at 18, partly for the mystique and partly because cultural cues told me it was manly. I quit a few years later to impress a girl who wasn’t keen on cuddling up to someone who reeked of cigarettes.

Whenever I catch a whiff of tobacco smoke now, it takes me back to earlier times of youth, adventure and mischief. I remember sneaking a smoke on the back steps of my high school and getting caught. I remember buying ciggies from a vending machine at a pool room where no one cared if you were underage.

It was hard to give up my Export A filters, and it took months to adjust to having a cup of coffee without a cigarette. There didn’t seem to be any point to sipping coffee without a smoke in my other hand.

I’m generally wrong about everything, but I can’t see smokeless tobacco taking hold of pop culture the way cigarettes did in the last century. Can you imagine James Bond offering a lady his tin of snus? Or Emma Stone daintily directing a stream of tobacco juice at a spittoon?

Me neither.

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